Don’t you honestly feel sometimes like they are really playing the “He loves me, He loves me not” game at the Nok to decide whether or not they would include a certain feature on a new device?
When the N96 was announced, the main debate was: to Xenon or not to Xenon, as well as to Battery or not to Battery *Be gone, Shakespeare!*. But one debate that I feel was undermined was the lack of 3D acceleration. The N96 product manager said it was a choice they made, a choice that I don’t really get.
I have had a taste of the acceleration with the N95 8GB: I tried Global Race and I have to say that this is one of the best mobile racing games I’ve ever played. 2 of my friends were almost in tears when I sent the N95 8GB back because they loved this particular game. It was fluid, smooth and overall nice to play.
To see the differences between accelerated an non-accelerated devices, Bery from the Symbian Web Blog has found a video showing the N95 and the N81 side-by-side when processing a 3D demo. Most importantly, Bery concluded by wondering whether accelerated N-Gage games were going to be released. If you read the post, you would see that I replied saying this wasn’t a viable option, for the main reason that the N96 didn’t have the hardware, and that would KILL the new device for N-Gage fanatics. It seems I was wrong: the N-Gage blog reports that hardware accelerated games might be just around the corner.
Why, Oh Why Nokia? Think about it for a second: the 2 devices (N81 & N96) that have gaming-dedicated keys don’t have hardware acceleration. And the devices that have the acceleration are the ones with the least comfortable in-hand long-run experience. And you wonder why the flower replied “I Hate You!”
